Repertoire NoteThis was one of several concert pieces that Britten extracted from his 1953 coronation opera, a work which has only received its rightful due in recent years. The Suite begins with the bracing Tournament music that opens the opera, followed by Essex’s haunting Second Lute Song, the vigorous Courtly Dances (which may be performed as a separate work), and concludes with the music of the opera’s Epilogue. The Suite could happily sit at either end of a concert programme and is an excellent introduction to one of Britten’s most undeservedly neglected stage works.